God Always Has a Plan.

Steve Gentry

[0:00] All right, go ahead and have a seat. [0:02] Welcome to Village Church. [0:03] If this is your first time here, my name’s Steve. [0:05] I’m one of the pastors here at Village Church. [0:07] And as always, I’m thankful and grateful to see each and every one of you. [0:10] If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them to Ruth chapter two.

[0:14] We’re going to be, Lord willing, going through that entire chapter today. [0:19] Last week, we started going through the book of Ruth as a church. [0:23] And so what we kind of have seen in that first week and what I want to continue this week [0:28] this narrative of the book of Ruth is kind of the story of how God’s sovereignty, [0:35] how his control, how his power works its way out through not just the ordinary circumstances of [0:42] life, but oftentimes even in the disappointing circumstances of life.

[0:47] There is no tragedy that takes place in our lives. [0:50] There is no hard time that we go through that will not ultimately be used by God [0:56] to work his plan and to give himself glory. [1:01] Our lives are not made up of just a few big moments that either excite us or bring us [1:07] to utter despair, but instead life is about a thousand small moments that bring us to who we [1:14] are, that grow us to bring us to the place that I am who I am either being used by God

[1:21] continually to my joy or being used by God and not finding joy in it and thereby revealing [1:27] that I do not actually have faith. [1:31] There’s this temptation for us and maybe you’ve heard it this way before to look at the book of [1:35] Ruth as kind of this romantic comedy where you know there’s this tragic character Ruth and then [1:41] Boaz sweeps in sweeps her off of her feet and you know saves her life and they live happily ever [1:46] after.

[1:47] And sure there is a love story contained within the book of Ruth, but that’s actually a false [1:52] gospel when you read it that way. [1:55] That’s a false hope and a kind of a false way of seeing the story because the story is not about [2:01] finding your hope in a significant other or if you’re a lady, you know you’re the damsel in [2:06] distress and Ruth is the excuse me and Boaz is the knight in shining armor that comes in. [2:10] That’s awful.

[2:11] And so if you’ve read it that way, stop it and read it. [2:14] I think that’s the true way that this is the story of how God works his sovereignty into our lives [2:21] and works his glory out of our lives so that we can see that the key theme of everything [2:29] is that God can be trusted in all situations in our life and in every circumstance that you [2:36] will ever endure. [2:38] And so I want to jump right in.

[2:39] I want to start reading the book of Ruth chapter 2 starting in verse 1. [2:44] Now, Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech whose name [2:50] was Boaz. [2:52] And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain [2:58] after him in whose sight I shall find favor. [3:01] And she said to her, go my daughter.

[3:04] So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. [3:07] And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz who was of the clan of [3:14] Elimelech. [3:15] And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you. [3:20] And they answered, the Lord bless you. [3:22] Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is

[3:29] this? [3:30] Pray with me. [3:32] Father, Lord, we are so thankful this morning for your grace. [3:38] Lord, I pray this morning that you would open our hearts and open our eyes through the power of [3:44] your spirit to see how you want to work this narrative into our lives, to see how the gospel [3:51] of Jesus can be greater to us through the lens of the book of Ruth.

[3:56] Lord, be merciful to me a sinner. [3:59] Lord, that we would be able to worship you today as we have already started. [4:03] Lord, I pray that we would continue in that spirit and that you would open our lives to grow [4:09] our faith this morning. [4:11] In the name of Jesus, I pray. [4:13] Amen.

[4:15] I want to start off by just hitting point number one, and that is that there are no accidents. [4:20] There really are no accidents in life. [4:22] What I want kind of us to kind of hone in on this morning is that what we’re going to see [4:28] is really that there is a tension in life between our actions and God’s sovereign hand, [4:34] and that is how his will works out, because there’s a kind of pendulum way of seeing God’s [4:40] sovereignty or lack thereof.

[4:42] We either see kind of that our efforts are what God needs and God is dependent on, and so we [4:48] do everything that we can to become righteous. [4:51] We do everything that we can to bring what we hope is his will about, and so God really needs us, [4:57] and we’ve really got to work hard for salvation. [5:00] Or you go the other way, and you’re like, God is completely sovereign, and in that you just kind [5:05] of cancel out any effort from your part, and you just become completely lazy.

[5:09] You become completely apathetic, and you’re like, well, why do I need to do anything? [5:13] Since God is in control, he doesn’t need me at all. [5:16] He doesn’t use what I do at all, so I’m just going to let life go, and his will be done. [5:21] Neither of those fit anywhere into anything that you’re ever going to see in God’s word. [5:28] God’s word never points us in either of those directions. [5:32] Instead, it points us to the story that God not only controls the ends of how things turn out,

[5:38] but he also controls the means by which we get to those ends. [5:43] And this is, again, the story that God is telling through the history of man, [5:49] that he is completely sovereign in every situation that will ever happen in my life or in your life. [5:56] But he also calls us and holds us responsible for putting forward the effort that is the means to [6:05] bring about the ends of his glory, and that is what’s going to be on display for us in [6:12] Ruth chapter 2. And in this, we see this great glory that God uses these people to both bring

[6:19] about the birth of Jesus Christ, because that’s where we came to the end of the story last week, [6:24] as we kind of started with the end so that we would see the trajectory that we’re going on, [6:29] that every tragedy, the death of Naomi’s husband, the death of Ruth’s husband, [6:34] this absolute disappointing life ultimately leads to the bloodline that’s going to bring [6:40] Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Savior and Lord, into this world. Have you ever had something in [6:47] your life and think of it, well, wasn’t that just a happy accident? You know, you look at the

[6:53] circumstances in your life, you look at maybe meeting someone, you run into someone, and you’re [6:57] like, oh, this is a wonderful happy accident. You know, if you kind of meet the person that [7:01] you think is going to be your significant other, you have that, you know, meet-cute that you hope [7:05] to have in your life, as they call it in the movies, and you’re like, it was just such a [7:08] serendipitous moment. It was just this happy accident. You know, you find 10 bucks, and you’re [7:13] like, oh my goodness, what great luck. You know, you find 100 bucks, and you’re like, oh my goodness,

[7:17] an even happier accident. Or maybe you haven’t experienced happy accidents, and it’s better for [7:22] me to get to your level, talk about sad accidents. Maybe you run into somebody at the grocery store, [7:26] and you’re like, oh, you know, maybe you thought someone was your significant other, only to find [7:32] that it wasn’t, you know, kissing the frog to bring out the prince, it was kissing the prince, and you [7:36] had a toad. But, you know, and you don’t find $10, instead you lose $10. You don’t find $100, [7:44] you lose $100. And in all of the ways that we view life, we are so tempted to really believe

[7:52] that our life is just a series of happy accident after happy accident. But those things don’t exist. [8:00] That’s not the story that we get from God. That’s not the plan that God actually has, [8:06] where everything’s just a coincidence that happens in a series of coincidences, [8:10] and there’s no one behind it all bringing everything to himself for glory. So there is no [8:17] happy accident. That is a complete myth. And so when we come into Ruth 2, there’s this temptation [8:26] to look at the story and be like, man, God somehow orchestrated all of these random events

[8:34] to bring about his glory. And what I want us to see is that that’s not the case at all, but instead, [8:41] God himself is orchestrating every one of these events, the moments that they’re like, man, [8:47] this is a fantastic accident. And then the moments where like, man, this is an absolute tragic [8:53] coincidence, all of them work to bring God glory. And so we find Ruth and Naomi, they’re back in [9:01] Bethlehem. They’ve returned from the nation of Moab where Naomi’s husband had taken her family, [9:07] her and her two sons, and they’d gone. They’d set up a life because they were looking for a

[9:11] place with more food. And then all of the husbands died. That’s kind of a spoiler alert. Everyone [9:17] dies. And they then come back from Moab and now they’re in Bethlehem again. And what I want you [9:23] to notice first is that nothing’s gotten better. Everything still stinks. Begin in Ruth chapter 2, [9:30] and you see Ruth and Naomi and Ruth and this wonderful woman of integrity, this wonderful [9:35] woman of character who has adopted Naomi as her mother, instead of the way it should work, [9:41] you know, vice versa, the mother adopts the child. No, Ruth has adopted Naomi as her mother and she

[9:46] looks at her and she says, I’m not just going to stay with you now. She’s going to take care of [9:51] her. But what you see is you might say, oh, that’s wonderful. She’s going to go out into the fields [9:56] and get some food. That’s not actually what’s going on at all. What gleaning was in the Old [10:01] Testament, gleaning is basically begging. Gleaning is what we have for people who are impoverished, [10:08] they’re in poverty, they’re starving, they have no way to take care of themselves. So in Leviticus [10:13] chapter 23, starting in verse 22, you begin to see this system that God puts into place so that

[10:20] those who are not of means could be taken care of, that while they go in and they’re getting the [10:26] harvest, what’s going to happen when you’re getting the harvest? The reapers are, you know, [10:29] they’re bagging up all the produce, they’re bagging up all the crops, and as they go, [10:33] stuff starts getting dropped and, you know, people are a little bit careless, so they, [10:37] you know, grab one piece of barley and some of it falls to the wayside. And God says in Leviticus [10:42] chapter 23 that there’s going to be a temptation for the landowner to look at their workers and

[10:47] say, hey, you lazy bums, go back and pick up everything that you dropped. God says, don’t do [10:51] that. Instead, leave all of that so that those who do not have the means and do not own fields [11:00] and are not able to take care of themselves, so that they can come behind the reapers and they [11:06] can pick off of what was dropped. And so what Ruth is about to do is not something that would have [11:13] had high esteem in that culture, but instead Ruth is that person on the side of the road with a [11:21] Will Work for Food sign. Ruth is in this moment the person in line at the soup kitchen. Ruth and

[11:30] are on the verge or possibly, we don’t know, are at this moment in their lives homeless. [11:38] And they are hungry. And because they have no other means, Ruth looks and she says, I will lower [11:45] myself. I will serve you, Naomi, by going and being a beggar amongst the people who are not my own [11:54] and amongst people who have no reason to take care of me. Because remember, she’s not Hebrew. [12:00] She’s from the land of Moab. So she’s even more of a cast off in this culture than if she was a [12:07] beggar. So you do not find them, hey, they returned to Bethlehem and the whole family gathered around

[12:12] them. Everything’s great. Now, this is actually a shameful situation because you have two widows [12:17] returning to a place where they have relatives and no one’s helping them. No one’s providing [12:23] for them. So Ruth steps up and she says, Naomi, I’m going to go get dinner. And these are very [12:31] interesting phrase in verse three. It says that she happened to come to the field of Boaz. [12:42] You know, nowhere else in the Old Testament do you see a phrase like that? [12:45] You say, what’s the big deal? That term happened actually means a chanced chance.

[12:53] In Hebrew, this would have been the way of saying as luck would have it, Ruth wanders into the field [13:02] of Boaz as she’s gleaning. Does not, no other event in the entire Bible is described in this [13:11] specific way. And so what we have to see here is that the author of the book of Ruth is actually [13:17] trying to evoke a response to us. Because if you had been a Hebrew receiving this book and you had [13:24] either heard in the synagogue or the temple, or you had read this on a scroll and seen that specific [13:29] phrase immediately, there would have been no place in your theology for such a phrase.

[13:34] There have been no understanding in your life for that possibility to even happen based on [13:41] everything else that scripture has said. And because of that, the narrator of the story, [13:46] the author, we know he’s using it to evoke that type of response for one of two reasons. First, [13:53] the story in this sense is to be seen through the eyes of Ruth. Remember, she wasn’t raised [13:58] in the synagogue. She wasn’t raised an Israelite. She’s from Moab. She’s just converted over from [14:06] worshiping the false god, Kimosh, which is related to the false god, Moloch. And if you know anything

[14:11] about Moloch, children were sacrificed to that false god. And so a completely pagan, a completely [14:18] wicked people. And so Ruth comes in with no understanding, no concept of this deep section [14:25] of the faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so she comes in and from her perspective, [14:32] I’m just hoping something turns out for my betterment. But secondly, it’s also understood [14:37] that this is literally the author of Ruth using sarcasm so that you’ll start paying attention. [14:43] One of the main points of Ruth, one is, is that this disappointing circumstance is not by accident.

[14:49] The entire theme of the book is seen at the very end when it says, in this bloodline led to King [14:54] David. Of course, King David’s bloodline led to the birth of Jesus Christ. And so he’s trying to get [14:59] us to focus in and realize there is no accident taking place here. She didn’t happen upon the [15:08] field of Boaz. Instead, God is bringing her by his sovereignty through his plan to come to this [15:17] place in this field. Friend, do you realize that there has never been a time in your life when God [15:24] at what was going on in your life and had to think to himself, how will I work this to fit my will

[15:31] and plan? My goodness, you have really gotten me and you into a pickle this time. I got to go back [15:39] to the drawing board and figure out how all this is going to work out to my glory. I wish I hadn’t [15:44] said Romans 828 to all these people. They’re really taking this seriously. They’re screwing [15:51] everything up. No, God’s never looked at your life that way. There’s never been a moment [15:58] where God says, well, I can’t bring you back from that. Now, in every moment, God looks at your life [16:05] and he sees the plans that he’s had for you. He sees you walking further into his will. He sees

[16:11] your plan from the beginning to the end and the end to the beginning, regardless of what your [16:17] perspective is. And so from Ruth’s perspective, what does she see? She’s just hungry. [16:24] And she just happened to go into the right field. But from God’s perspective, every moment of [16:31] tragedy, every moment of disappointment, even that moment of realizing we are beggars.

[16:42] All of it, God’s plan. All of it. And so when I look into this audience,

[16:52] I don’t know all of you. I don’t know all of your situations. Maybe one or two of you have been to [16:57] that point of despair, but I don’t look at a crowd and think, man, all of you have been homeless. So [17:04] you know exactly the level that Ruth is dealing with in tragedy. And maybe one or two of you have [17:10] been to that point. And so if you’ve been there, you understand the plight that Ruth has right now. [17:15] But if you’ve never dealt with it, understand your life has never been this low. But I know [17:22] that you’ve been to a place regardless of how good or bad you’ve had it in your life where you have

[17:27] responded, this stinks. How could God let this happen to me?

[17:37] God has turned his back on me in this moment. Surely this is not his plan.

[17:47] So in this moment in Ruth, I want us to see [17:53] that in the moment of starvation, in the moment of homelessness, Ruth was right there in the middle [18:01] of God’s plan to bring himself glory. In every moment, every disappointment, every tragedy, [18:12] God is not wondering how it’s going to fit his plan. Instead, God is saying, [18:19] trust me in the disappointment. Trust me in the tragedy. There are no accidents with God. [18:28] Proverbs 16.33 puts it this way. He says, the lot is cast into the lap, but it’s every decision

[18:34] is from the Lord. Now I’m assuming that most of you do not have a great background in casting lots. [18:42] But I’m also assuming that some of you may know what a casino is. [18:47] I think some of you may know what gambling is. What he’s saying here is literally a gambling [18:52] metaphor. They would cast lots and it was seen as a game of chance. And so what the author of [18:59] Proverbs is saying right there, there is no roll of the dice on the craps table that the Lord does [19:06] not determine whether or not Snake Eyes is going to come up. There is no pull on the lever of a

[19:13] machine that the Lord does not determine how the wheels are going to turn and whether they will [19:19] match and give you the jackpot or a lot. Just a side note for the Baptist, I’m not advocating [19:24] gambling. But the reality, I know some of you were thinking it, you were going to miss everything I [19:29] said this morning except that analogy. All right. You’re that despicable. So don’t. [19:36] Don’t. All right. Understand that God is in control. He is powerful. That powerful.

[19:48] Now realize that from your perspective there are accidents. Because all you see is the 15 foot view. [19:56] But God does not. He has the 15,000 foot view. He sees everything that happens. [20:00] Don’t use this though as the excuse for your sin. As the excuse for your disobedience. [20:08] Because you, as you’ve seen from your view, you’ll see them as accidents. [20:13] You’ll see it as the wrong thing. And in the moment of disobedience, in the moment of sin, [20:18] it is the wrong thing. Every single moment of your life though will either be to God’s glory

[20:26] for your benefit or for your detriment. Therefore, understand, continue in your sin if you will. [20:36] But what that means is that God will get glory out of your life, but you will not enjoy even [20:40] a moment of it. You will not be allowed to worship him even for a moment of it. And you will be cast [20:45] out of his presence forever. And that’s what God’s glory will look like for you. But the way that you [20:50] must see the control of God is, is that you should repent of your sin and you should align your life [20:55] with his glory so that you can live life and worship of him. So that you can find joy in his

[21:01] will. So that you can be in his presence where there are at his right hand pleasures forever more. [21:07] You must consider though, that somehow outside of my purview and outside of your purview, every [21:17] single moment of my life accomplishes God’s plan. And not just his plan for me, [21:27] but his plan for the entire world for the glory of his name. There are no accidents. [21:34] But number two this morning, understand, God does use our effort to bring about his will. [21:40] God does use our effort to bring about his will. And that’s where the story continues to take us.

[21:47] You know there is a connection and a tension between the providence of God or experiencing [21:54] his good favor and his good plan in your life and the integrity of effort. There’s a connection [22:02] between the two of them. It’s all through the narrative of scripture. Understand that when we [22:07] come into this chapter, we see two pictures of character and faithfulness. First, we see Boaz [22:12] in verse one. What’s he called? He’s called a worthy man. So coming into the narrative, [22:20] the scriptures point something out to us because they want us to understand who we’re going to be

[22:25] dealing with in the story. Boaz is a worthy man. So I know some of you ladies, you know, you probably [22:31] already got this vision in your head of who Boaz is. You know, he walks onto the field, stands about [22:36] a foot taller than everybody else. He’s been working out, you know, taking the right supplements. His [22:42] hair is in the wind. He’s got Thor’s hair. Some of you are so weird. You’re picturing Thor’s hammer in his hand. Stop that. [22:50] All right, that’s weird. All right, but you’ve got this picture. You know, Thor, he’s the worthy [22:55] man. He’s the man’s man. That is what the scripture is tempting to evoke out of you. It’s what she

[23:00] wants you to understand about Boaz. He’s a man of character. He’s a man of integrity. He’s also a man [23:05] of faith. Note what happens in verse four. It specifically records his first statement to his [23:10] workers, as the Lord be with you. Now that term for Lord isn’t just this vague notion of God. No, it is the name Yahweh [23:18] that he says to his people. And so that tells you he believes in the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. [23:25] More than that, he has a righteous faith in him. He trusts in God. It’s the message that he gives to his [23:33] But then in Ruth, we also, as I said, we see a continued faithfulness to Naomi. We see her turning

[23:41] away from her false gods, embracing the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And we see her working [23:47] towards provision. So you do not see a stage set for them to sit idly by and say, well, I hope it [23:57] works out. No, you see them engaging. You see them working. You see them putting forward effort in life. [24:04] And God uses that. He blesses that to their favor, to their betterment. God’s provision for our lives [24:14] does not come specifically because of our efforts, but do not believe that there is no connection [24:22] between them. God uses the integrity of our effort as the means by which to display

[24:30] his providence or his goodness in our lives. Now, this is not the health and wealth gospel. [24:38] God gives us no promise that our efforts will always contain the fruit that we want. [24:45] For our joy, though, our efforts towards his will are always fruitful in accomplishing his will. [24:51] And we get the joy of experiencing the worship of his glory and actually enjoying his will. [25:00] That is the key to effort that is worshipful. But there’s this strain, this thread sometimes, [25:10] that invades our lives and attempts to invade our faith that turns into a type of fatalism

[25:16] when looking at the sovereignty of God. And that becomes an excuse for your laziness. That becomes [25:22] an excuse for your apathy. But Ruth and Boaz give us a picture of effort undergirded by faith. [25:31] Not an effort that is the basis of their faith. Not an effort that says, hey, everybody, [25:38] look at the good that I’m doing. Hey, everybody, look at how wonderful I am. No, we see an effort [25:44] that’s undergirded by a trust in God that is ruthless. And this goes throughout all of [25:50] scripture. Look at what Psalm 18 20 says. It says, the Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness,

[25:56] according to the cleanness of my hands. He rewarded me. That is not an effortless passage. [26:05] That is not sitting idly by and doing nothing. No, that is the containment of a righteous faith [26:10] that leads you to do something with your faith. It’s first the righteousness of faith, but then [26:16] the action that is produced by such effort. And the tension here is trusting that God will [26:23] graciously bless your efforts. I mean, we had all better hope that we have no other hope [26:28] than that God would bless our efforts. Note what Lamentations 3 37 says. It says,

[26:33] who has spoken and it came to pass unless the Lord has commanded it. In other words, [26:39] the only hope that you have of any of your effort in your life ever working out for good [26:43] to the glory of God is if the Lord commands that it comes about to his glory. As Lamentations 3 37 [26:49] corrects our trust in our work by telling us that the Lord must command for anything to come [26:57] about. There is a temptation to look at scriptures such as Lamentations 3 and take it out of context [27:05] and believe the lie that we can sit idly by and do nothing for God’s plan to come about.

[27:10] Yes, it will come about, but it won’t help you at all. That’s not what you see in Ruth. If she [27:17] hadn’t gone to the field, would she have met Boaz? No, she wouldn’t have. If she hadn’t gone to the [27:23] field, would she have seen this amazing picture of God’s gracious provision in her life? No, [27:29] she wouldn’t have. She would have missed it and she would have stayed hungry. She wouldn’t have [27:35] gotten any food. But what you see in this story is you see the effort and God graciously blessing [27:44] every moment of it along the way. Here’s what it says starting in verse eight with the story

[27:50] of Ruth and Boaz. Boaz looks to Ruth after asking his man, what woman is this? And he says, now, [27:56] Listen, my daughter, do not go glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my [28:01] young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping and go after them. Have I not [28:07] charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink with [28:12] the young what the young men have drawn. Then she fell on her face bowing to the ground and said to [28:17] him, Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner?

[28:24] Look at the connection between sovereignty and grace.

[28:31] Is that Ruth is putting forward this effort, trying to find food. And then the Lord looks and [28:37] he works and he’s planning to work all along through this effort through her entering into [28:42] that field. And then he works through Boaz, works through his character, works through his faith to [28:49] provide for Ruth. But note also Ruth’s response to Boaz because he doesn’t just say, Yeah, sure. [28:56] If anybody drops something, go pick it up. No, he goes past that. He says, Hey, [29:04] that moment that you’re in poverty, I mean, some people in poverty, they’re dangerous.

[29:10] He says, You stay among my crowd, my young women, and my young men will keep you safe. [29:17] Promise nobody’s gonna hurt you. And hey, it’s a hard job. It’s tough when you get thirsty. [29:23] You don’t go and just try to find a puddle to have to drink out of. [29:28] You don’t go and just hope that you find one. No, no, no, you go to where I drink from. [29:33] You go to the place that I’ve set aside for my people to drink. And you get something to drink. [29:41] What does Ruth do? Does she respond and say, Glad you noticed Boaz, I’m a hard worker.

[29:48] I deserve absolutely everything you’re offering me right now. And I want a 10% raise.

[29:56] That’s how some of us would have responded. It was about time somebody noticed how hard of a time [30:02] I’ve been having. It’s about time everything’s coming to my benefit. It’s about time. [30:09] No, no, no, no. What happens is, is we get the first picture in the Book of Ruth, which is [30:17] actually a foreshadowing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We see Boaz look to someone who doesn’t [30:24] deserve any of this. And we see Boaz pour grace upon grace upon grace. He says, You follow me. [30:33] Who else said that?

[30:36] Say, You stay close to me. I won’t allow harm. You, I’ll give you living water. [30:43] You don’t have to drink the nonsense anymore. You can have the good stuff.

[30:49] And how does she respond? She responds as anyone should respond to the grace of Jesus Christ. [30:56] She bows down and she says, I do not deserve your favor. [31:04] I don’t belong in your field. I am a foreigner and the grace that you’ve had on me is amazing.

[31:16] You see, some of the problems that some of you are having in following Jesus is that you think [31:20] you belong in his presence. You think you deserve his favor. You think you deserve to be saved by [31:26] him because you’re so good. You think that it’s about time he noticed the good stuff that you’re [31:31] doing in your life. No, that is not faith friend. That’s self-absorption. That’s self-righteousness. [31:38] Jesus Christ is the one who owns all of the field. Jesus Christ is the one who deserves all of the [31:44] harvest. And he’s so gracious to us. He doesn’t just say we can come play in his field. He says,

[31:48] you stay right beside me and I’ll provide. You stay right beside me. And the only logical [31:55] response to the owner of the field doing that to you is, thank you. I’m unworthy.

[32:05] You see, all of our efforts in every moment serve to show what you are actually trusting in. [32:13] Here’s how James put it in James 2. He says, what good is it, brothers? If someone says he [32:18] has faith but does not have works, can that faith save them? If a brother or a sister is [32:24] poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and [32:30] filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also, faith by [32:37] itself, if it does not have works, is dead. So when you just cancel yourself out, when you

[32:49] have that laziness, when you have that apathy, when you stop putting forth effort into the [32:56] gospel of Jesus, when you look at faith and you say, well, I’ve got faith. I’m looking forward [33:00] to heaven. I hope I figure out something to do between here and then that serves to my benefit.

[33:08] What you’re seeing is that your laziness and your apathy show that you believe a fatalism that God [33:14] is not actually gracious to you, that God doesn’t actually want to use you. That’s not the true [33:20] Jesus. But also, when your action, your effort is all about impressing, when your actions have [33:29] no real faith in anything but yourself, see, that shows that you don’t believe that God is [33:35] not the true Jesus either. This past week, I was privileged to serve some churches up in the [33:43] Northeast and I let a breakout at a conference and I had a pretty good number of pastors in the

[33:48] room with me and so I taught and then afterwards we did some Q&A and as soon as the Q&A was over, [33:53] the way it always goes is some of the pastors come and they ask you personal questions and so [33:57] I’m talking to a few pastors and then a man comes up to me and he’s speaking broken English. [34:02] And so I’m trying to understand him. I’m terrible with accents and so I’m standing there and I’m [34:06] listening to his story and he’s just going on. He’s like, what you have said today is so wonderful. [34:11] In my context, it’s just, this is so useful. Thank you so much for coming up here and teaching me

[34:19] this and then he told me his name and I can’t tell you his name because he’s in a dangerous part of [34:23] the world, you know, where if they find out what he’s doing, he’ll either be expelled from the [34:28] world or worse. But it turns out this is a man that I’ve personally been praying for for three [34:32] years but I never met him. A man whose story had come in front of me through the church planning [34:39] networks that we serve in and we’re connected to as a church and I’m sitting there and I realize [34:43] who he is and I think to myself, immediately the grace of God comes upon me and I’m convicted

[34:48] because I’m like, this man is thanking me and in my mind, the stories that I’ve heard, this is a man [34:53] who serves in a country where 80 million people have never even heard the name of Jesus. [34:58] I think to myself, you’re a giant in the faith. You are a hero to me and you’re thanking me. [35:05] I’ve taught you and in that moment, I look, I just, it’s like my whole life flashed before my eyes [35:13] and I think about all that God has done through my life for the past few decades to lead to that [35:20] moment. And I tell you, I did not think to myself, yes, you’re welcome.

[35:30] I know the answer to your ministry has always been me, hasn’t it? You needed my teaching and [35:36] it’ll revolutionize everything. No, no. But isn’t that what we’re tempted to think sometimes? [35:43] And I tell you, in that moment, I saw the road that God has had me on. I saw the effort that [35:48] God has graciously worked through me in ministry and I thought to myself, [35:53] I don’t deserve these kind words. I don’t deserve for God to use me. I didn’t deserve [36:01] that moment. That giant. And yet the Father allowed me that moment for me to kneel before

[36:11] him and say, I don’t deserve to be in your field. I’m a foreigner. I’m a foreigner. Thank you, Jesus.

[36:22] See, that is where the tension between our efforts and God’s sovereignty lies. [36:29] And that moment where you see everything that you’ve done come to fruition and you thank to [36:33] yourself, it wasn’t me at all, was it? It was God. But I thought to do this morning, I want you to [36:40] understand that in your life, righteous action always follows faith. You know, that section from [36:48] the book of James does us so well to show us that when faith does not urge us on to live out what [36:56] we say we believe, what we should actually do is stop in that moment and allow the word to be a

[37:03] little clearer to us because what we see in our action, what we see in our effort is actually [37:10] what our faith is in. You see, what you are pouring your life in, what you are pouring your [37:16] effort into is not neutral. It is either showing your faith in Jesus or it is showing your lack [37:23] of faith in Jesus. And what the apostle James is doing in that moment is he’s evoking from you a [37:29] response to say either, yes, faith without works is dead or no, my faith has no works, therefore, [37:37] what does that say about my faith? It’s dead or it’s very much alive but to the wrong thing.

[37:49] So what does your action say about your faith? See, there’s going to come periods in your life [37:56] and I can’t help but think that Ruth and Naomi, they’re there in this moment, [38:00] they’re there in this section of the narrative and it’s going to happen to you multiple times [38:04] and the older you get, it’s going to happen more and more and if you’re a parent, the older your [38:09] children get, it’s going to happen more and more where you just don’t know what to do. [38:14] You have no idea what direction to take this situation. You’re clueless and usually you

[38:21] think you’re the only one. No, that’s all of us. It’s all of us. We don’t know. We don’t know. [38:26] So what do you do in those moments? Well, you do what Ruth did. You do the next right thing. [38:33] See, God has not been silent about what we should do. God has not been absent from speaking into our [38:42] situations. Through his word, he has been abundantly clear as to what he wants us to do with our faith, [38:49] as to what he wants us to do with our lives and so in the moments where he’s been completely [38:54] unclear and it’s just like seminary didn’t prepare me for this,

[39:04] nothing prepared Ruth for hunger.

[39:08] But she said, man, the Hebrews have this system where you can go glean in the fields. I need a [39:11] meal. She just did the next right thing.

[39:17] So many times in our lives, that is the answer that we need. But note what happens in the story. [39:24] Look down at verse 14. I’m going to skip a few verses because of time. [39:29] It says in verse 14, at meal time, Boaz said to her,

[39:34] you’re going to see Jesus real quick right here. [39:37] And we’ll cover that in a second. Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine. [39:46] So she sat beside the reapers and he passed to her roasted grain and she ate until she was [39:52] satisfied and she had some left over. When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, [40:00] her glean even among the sheaves. Do not reproach her and also pull out some from the bundles [40:08] for her and leave it for her to glean and do not rebuke her. So she gleaned in the field until

[40:13] evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an effa of barley. Now I realize [40:20] that in this crowd, most of you don’t go to the bakery or to the deli and say, can I have an effa [40:24] of turkey please? They’re not going to know what to do. Normally in this situation when you’re [40:31] gleaning, they would get hopefully enough for a meal. An effa of barley was weeks worth of food, [40:40] weeks. And she took it up and she went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. [40:46] She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. And her mother-

[40:53] in-law said, where did you glean today? She’s like, man, not only did you bring back stuff for me to [40:58] cook with, but you brought me dinner. And where have you worked? Blessed is the man who took [41:03] notice of you. So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, the man’s name with [41:09] whom I worked today is Boaz. And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, may he be blessed by the Lord [41:16] whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead. Naomi said to her, the man is a close [41:26] relative of ours, one of our redeemers. We’ll talk about the redeemer part more next week.

[41:34] But here’s what I want you to see. The great response that Naomi gives. In that moment, [41:40] you are seeing Naomi’s repentance. In that moment, Naomi, if you were here last week or if you [41:46] weren’t here, and Ruth won, tragedy strikes her after tragedy after tragedy. And she looks to Ruth [41:51] and she says, you’re going to need to get out of here because everybody around me dies.

[41:56] God has forsaken me. God has cursed me. You should leave. And yet Ruth says, no, I’m going [42:04] to stay. And in this moment, she looks to Ruth and she says this amazing phrase. If you look in [42:12] She uses the phrase for God. She says, his kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead. [42:19] That is one of the most pivotal sections of Ruth for you to understand about what repentance and [42:24] faith are all about. She is not just saying when she talks about the kindness of God, that God has [42:30] been really nice. He’s such a nice guy. No, that term in the Hebrew is all over the Old Testament.

[42:36] It is a term that’s translated a few different ways into English. But the idea behind it, [42:42] this term has said is covenant faithfulness. It’s an enduring faithfulness that God is renowned [42:50] through the Old Testament and through the gospel to have for us. She looks to God, the same God [42:55] that she says had been completely unfaithful to her and Ruth won. She says, God’s turn is back on [43:02] me. God has cursed me. She says, oh, praise God for his covenant faithfulness. Because she used [43:12] that word, we can understand it for her to be saying, how wrong was I? Lord, I’m sorry.

[43:22] Lord, I didn’t have faith. Lord, I didn’t trust. But you’re the God of Abraham. You’re the God of [43:27] Isaac. You’re the God of Jacob. You are a God of enduring faithfulness. Your covenant faithfulness [43:34] goes forevermore. There is no ending to how faithful you are, Lord.

[43:43] And then she also says towards the end there, she makes this great, great statement. She says, [43:49] his covenant faithfulness has not forsaken the living or the dead. That’s an interesting thing [43:55] for a widow to say. But I don’t think she’s saying it about her husband. I think she’s saying it [44:03] about herself. Because in chapter one, Naomi believed God was done with her. Naomi believed [44:11] the story was over. Naomi said, God’s turned his back. It’s over. My faith is dead.

[44:21] But here, she said, he’s the God of the living and even someone with dead faith like me.

[44:32] Our God is faithful. He always, always, always has a plan for everything in life.

[44:45] Note also what Boaz did for Ruth. You see, such a foreshadowing of the gospel of Jesus Christ in [44:53] this section that Boaz doesn’t just say, yeah, Ruth, you can glean in my field. And that’s not [44:59] what God does for us either. God doesn’t just let us glean in his field. He doesn’t just look at us [45:05] as beggars and not bring us into his presence. No, God does for us through the gospel what Boaz did [45:11] for Ruth. He says, hey, you come on over. You’re not a beggar anymore. You come to my table. You [45:18] eat dinner with me. You dip your wheat into the wine. That is not how you treat someone that you

[45:25] see as a beggar. That is someone who’s the recipient of grace. That’s someone who’s the [45:32] recipient of favor. That’s someone who belongs in the presence of the master. You see, friends, [45:38] in Galatians 525 informs us that we need to keep our lives in step with the Spirit. [45:45] See, most of the time, we’re just looking at the work of the Holy Spirit and we’re trying to sit [45:48] in the Spirit. We’re trying to just sit still and say, you know what, I’m so Spirit-filled right now. [45:54] Not if you’re sitting there. Not if there’s no effort behind it. You see, Ruth wouldn’t have

[45:59] gotten to the table of the master just sitting there. No, she had to go glean in the field. [46:04] She had to go put some effort behind her faith. She had to go put some effort behind the trust [46:08] that she had in God. This is not an accidental destination. It’s the grace of God that the [46:14] transformed life that trusting him produces. So our Titus 3.8 tells us, this saying is trustworthy. [46:21] It’s a faithful thought. I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in [46:28] God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable

[46:34] for people.

[46:38] You see, friend, God’s covenant faithfulness is for you. This is what brings about Naomi’s repentance. [46:49] It wasn’t Ruth just sitting there. It wasn’t Ruth just being apathetic and idle about the [46:55] work of God. No, it was Ruth getting out there, Ruth gleaning in the field, and then Ruth responding [46:59] to Boaz as one who was just thankful that someone had grace on her.

[47:09] You see, friends, when you can’t see what God is doing in your life, keep moving.

[47:16] Keep trusting. Keep letting your faith be in God and obey him in your action through faith, [47:25] because God can be trusted to bring about his will. [47:30] But as the band comes up, I don’t want to miss the picture of the table.

[47:38] You see, when we think about the gospel of Jesus Christ, I want us to see that Boaz is picturing [47:46] the future of redemption. Boaz being seen as the kinsman redeemer. He’s a foreshadowing of the [47:54] is the better Boaz. Jesus does not just call us to his table for one meal. Jesus calls us to his [48:02] table and says, I will provide for you for eternity. Jesus calls us to his table at great sacrifice [48:09] to himself. And he says, you come grab the bread, dip it in the wine, eat and drink, because it is [48:17] a meal that is going to satisfy you forever. That is the picture that we have in Ruth, too.

[48:24] It’s the gospel of Jesus Christ for you, friend. You are Naomi and Ruth.

[48:33] You may not realize it, but you are a beggar. You do not deserve to be in God’s field. You are a [48:43] sinner. And I know some of you don’t realize it, but you’re a dirty one, too.

[48:49] You don’t belong there. When God looks to you, he doesn’t think, I’m so lucky to have you. [48:55] Well, thank you for eating all of my food. No, God calls us. He’s a gracious master who owns [49:04] the whole field. He owns every field. And he says, I’ve called you here. I want you here. [49:11] I love you here. And I’ve done everything in my power to keep you here [49:17] at the cost of the life of my son. You see, the meal that Ruth ate that night, she didn’t know [49:23] that the Passover meal that she was eating was pointing to something that was going to happen

[49:27] through her bloodline hundreds and hundreds of years later. The meal that she ate was a picture [49:33] of the broken body and shed blood of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And on this side of the cross, [49:40] when we see the conclusion of the story of Ruth is Jesus, and we look at the bread, which [49:47] represents the broken body, we look at the cup, which represents the shed blood of Jesus. [49:53] God says, if you trust me, come in my field. Eat, drink, you’re safe. And friend, if you’re in here [50:03] and you’ve trusted in Jesus, just a moment, I want you to rise and I want you to come forward

[50:08] the front, maybe to the back where there’s more tables. I want you to eat and drink. [50:13] And I want you to find joy this morning, not in the situation that you’re in, [50:18] not in how good or bad you have it, not in these happier, sad accidents that are happening all [50:24] around you. But I want you to find joy in what Ruth found joy in. I want you to find joy that [50:30] the master has not just said, you can be in my field. The master has said, you can stay in my [50:35] field and you can stay at my table. That’s what Jesus gives us. If you’ve not trusted in him,

[50:42] I’m gonna ask you to do something different. As everybody rises, I’m gonna ask you just to [50:46] anonymously slip out into the foyer. Somebody would love to talk to you about Jesus. Someone [50:50] would love to pray with you. Someone would love to just encourage you to continue exploring [50:54] Christianity. But when you’re ready, come celebrate the death of our Lord.